My unforgettable birding trip to the Peruvian Amazon

December 3, 2016

Birds and wildlife, that’s what I was hoping to see on my journey to the tropical rainforest in southeastern Peru with conservationists from Amazon Conservation. Our destination was Amazon Conservation’s Los Amigos lodge and research station, part of a pristine 350,000 acre conservation concession area bordering the iconic Manu National Park. Traveling to the lodge on a lovely four hour boat ride up the Madre de Dios river set the tone for our adventure. We scanned the river banks and were rewarded with jabirus, horned screamers, wood storks and black hawk-eagles in flight, pied lapwings and large-billed terns on sandbanks, a collared peccary swimming across the river and a large capybara by the shoreline. Mining activity was also present along the river, a stark reminder of the importance of protecting habitat.